Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image capturing apparatus and an image capturing method.
Description of the Related Art
An image capturing apparatus that adds, to a captured image, information relating to the state during image capturing and records the captured image with the information is known. A recording apparatus disclosed in International Publication No. 2006/028172 starts temporary storage of a moving image, when the recording apparatus is set to a mode of capturing a still image with a moving image. When a shutter button is pressed, the recording apparatus records a captured still image, and also generates one moving image from a moving image temporarily stored before the still image is captured, a moving image obtained by converting the captured still image, and a moving image captured after the shutter button is pressed and records the generated moving image. The technique disclosed in International Publication No. 2006/028172 thus enables recognition of the state of the subject at and before and after image capturing.
A camera-equipped mobile terminal disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-148052 determines the facial expression of a user who captures the image of the subject from the image of the user captured by a front-facing camera, and performs a shutter operation of a rear-facing camera based on the determined information. The camera mobile terminal classifies the image captured by the rear-facing camera according to the degree of the user's facial expression, and displays the image. The technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-148052 thus enables recognition of the user's facial expression at the time of capturing the image by the rear-facing camera.
However, International Publication No. 2006/028172 does not disclose a technique of capturing the image of the user, and so the state of the user during image capturing cannot be recognized. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-148052 discloses a technique of storing image data in association with a maximum degree of smile during a determination time from when a shutter operation is performed, but does not take into consideration the user's facial expression (state) before image capturing. The user's facial expression (state) and its change before and after image capturing cannot be recognized with the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-148052.